(August 26, 2024) – RailState, the rail industry’s only provider of real-time rail network visibility, independently tracks all freight rail movements across Canada and provides a unique understanding of what’s actually moving on the system that has been unavailable from any other source.
With a flurry of activity between the government, railways, and union groups over recent days, it has been hard to know what’s happening on the ground without an independent source of data.
On Sunday, August 25, total train movements across both railways were less than half (48.5%) of the average daily volume before the work stoppage on August 22.
CN started running trains on Friday and significantly increased train volumes over the weekend. On Sunday, CN’s system-wide train movements were 74.8% of their volume before the work stoppage.
CPKC’s traffic on Sunday was 12.1% of its average volume.
Major Port Activity
The Port of Vancouver typically sees 20 trains per day. On August 25, the Port only saw 7 trains.
August 25 volume by train type
- Coal: 0
- Grain: 0
- Intermodal: 2
- Manifest: 2
- Tank Car Unit (Petroleum): 1
- Potash: 0
- Other: 2
The Port of Prince Rupert saw no freight volume August 22-24 (there was one passenger train on August 24), and volume returned on Sunday, with mostly intermodal trains returning to the port to pick up containers.
August 25 volume by train type
- Coal: 1
- Grain: 0
- Intermodal: 4
- Manifest: 1
- Tank Car Unit (Petroleum): 0
- Other: 0
Industry Activity
Intermodal
New container volume from the Port of Vancouver stopped on the first day of the work stoppage and some activity returned on Friday on CN. On Sunday, CN moved container volume in-line with their recent daily averages.
CPKC has not moved container volume out of the Port of Vancouver from Aug 22-25.
Automotive
Automakers in Canada are particularly reliant on rail to move vehicles to the United States, mostly to the midwest. The flow of autoracks southbound across the border stopped on August 22 and no real volume returned until Saturday on CN.
Cross-border autorack movements on CPKC have not restarted through August 25.
Continuous Updates
RailState will provide additional updates on the impact of this stoppage and how a return to work impacts different regions and industries.
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